Gender Inequality Overview

Question 1

Engels (MARXISM)

Answer 1

Women’s subordinate position is a result of the ownership of private property & the development of the nuclear family.

Question 2

Benston (MARXISM)

Answer 2

The wife keeps the husband in good order to benefit capitalism.

Question 3

Ansley (MARXISM)

Answer 3

Sees women as acting as a ‘safety valve’ and talks of women as being “the takers of shit’ as husbands take their frustrations out on their wives.

Question 4

Feeley (MARXISM)

Answer 4

The family teaches children to accept authority from their fathers and that it is ‘natural’ for men and women to have separate jobs in the home, which leads to women being oppressed.

Question 5

Murdock (FUNCTIONALISM)

Answer 5

Studied gender roles in over 200 societies & found women were located in the home because of biology & physique

Question 6

Parsons & Bales (FUNCTIONALISM)

Answer 6

Men have an ‘instrumental’ role, women have an ‘expressive’ role. The nuclear family is efficient.

Question 7

Durkheim (FUNCTIONALISM)

Answer 7

Division of labour is functional for society & people should take on specialised roles for efficiency.

Question 8

Oakley (FEMINISM)

Answer 8

Gender role socialisation starts young. Discusses manipulation (encouraging ‘gender appropriate behaviour e.g., girls wearing pink) & canalisation (channelling children towards particular toys)

Question 9

Schlafy (NEW RIGHT)

Answer 9

Marriage can be difficult but is still the most fulfilling role of a women. She believes ‘The flight from home is a flight from self, from responsibility, from the nature of woman, in pursuit of false hopes and fading fantasies’

Question 10

Marxist criticisms

Answer 10

1. Over-emphasises class & economic factors
2. Focus on macro issues & ignore small scale interactions
3. Postmodernists argue it is outdated

Question 11

Functionalist criticisms

Answer 11

1. Gender roles have changed

2. Ethnocentric

Question 12

Feminist criticisms

Answer 12

1. Postmodernist ideas suggest that gender identities are no longer fixed.
2. Theorists such as Connell says some children actively go against traditional gender stereotypes.
3. Liberal feminism is a middle-class movement

Question 13

New Right criticisms

Answer 13

1. The biological argument of gender roles is yet to be proved
2. They ignore negative effects of gender roles, such as the dark side of the family
3. Outdated